Pakistan’s government yesterday said that it was trying to reopen talks with opposition groups after bloody overnight clashes between police and protesters outside the prime minister’s residence left two dead and hundreds injured.
By yesterday morning, sporadic clashes were continuing between police in riot gear and a few hundred protesters, as thousands more lay on the grass and slept. Many protesters had come armed with batons and slingshots.
Several vehicles stood torched and hundreds of tear gas canisters lay strewn on the ground on Islamabad’s normally pristine Constitution Avenue following more than 12 hours of battle.
Photo: AFP
Thousands of followers of politician Imran Khan and cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri have been camped outside parliament since Aug. 15 demanding the resignation of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, triggering a crisis that has raised the specter of military intervention.
Opposition groups — who claim last year’s election which swept Sharif to power was rigged — tried to storm the prime minister’s official residence on Saturday night, using cranes to remove barricades.
Pakistani Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rasheed yesterday said that the government remained open to restarting negotiations to end the situation peacefully.
“The government did not initiate the clashes. [The protesters] turned violent and tried to enter sensitive government buildings, which are the symbol of the state,” he told the private Geo News channel. “They wanted their demands to be met at gunpoint, but still, our doors are open for talks.”
“This is democracy, this is democracy in Pakistan,” a Qadri follower who identified himself as Aziz said. “It is more dangerous than military dictatorship; they do not allow people to make peaceful protests.”
Neither Khan nor Qadri led their protests from the front, though Khan later tweeted a picture of himself standing on top of a shipping container that he said was being shelled by tear gas.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences reported two deaths — one man hit by a rubber bullet and another who died of a heart attack.
More than 400 injured, including dozens of women and a handful of children, were rushed to the city’s two major hospitals. At least 79 police were among the wounded.
The confrontation took on a new dimension on Thursday after it was announced that the country’s powerful army leader General Raheel Sharif would mediate.
Observers believe that if Nawaz Sharif survives the crisis it will be at the cost of significant concessions to the army — including allowing former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, currently on trial for treason, to leave the country.
However, political analyst Mosharraf Zaidi said the protests had become difficult to contain and the opposition could be trying to get the military more directly involved.
“The single objective is to force Sharif to resign and possibly force the military to intervene,” he said.
Zaidi also dismissed claims by the protest groups that they had not initiated the violence.
Nawaz Sharif, for his part, has vowed to stay on.
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